Falcons finish in Athens for conference meet

The Abbotsford girls cross country team concluded its season with the Marawood conference meet held in Athens last Thursday. The Falcons took seventh out of ten schools that participated, scoring 197 points. Assumption dominated the meet, taking four of the top five spots and finishing with only 23 points. Phillips took second with 63 points and Stratford placed third with 72 points.

Iris Cruz and Azul Diaz were Abbotsford’s top runners. The pair ran together for much of the meet and finished with nearly identical times. Cruz came in narrowly ahead of Diaz, with Cruz finishing in 24:14.7 and Diaz recording a final time of 24:14.9. The two teammates finished 36th and 37th respectively.

Brissa Diaz came in next for the Falcons. She took over 30 seconds off her time from the last time the team ran at Athens a few weeks prior to set a new PR, completing the course in 25:21.3 and placing 48th. Reese Molitor was Abbotsford’s fourth runner and she too took over half a minute off her previous time on the Athens’ course. Her time of 27:11.0 was good for 53rd.

Angie Chavez, Azalea Atkinson and Ana Flores finished 55th, 56th and 57th respectively. They all cut significant time from their previous Athens’ times. Chavez finished with a time of 27:43.1, Atkinson just missed getting under the 28 minute mark with a time of 28:00.9 and Flores came in with a time of 28:32.5. Both Chavez and Atkinson set new personal bests.

With the conference meet completed, the Falcons’ first season back on the course came to an end. Abbotsford had not fielded a squad after the Colby/Abbotsford girls’ team split following the 2019 season, but there was significant progress made for a team full of athletes that had not run cross country before. After starting the season running times between 33 and 35 minutes, there was rapid improvement across the board for Abbotsford.

These individual performances also led to team success, as the Falcons had two third-place finishes as a team over the course of their inaugural season. They will be looking to build upon this next year, where they will come into the season with a wealth of experience under their belts.

“We had our ups and downs during the season but that never stopped them from getting PR’s at meets and staying positive,” coach Dillon Novak said of his team. “I give them all a lot of credit for the progress they made throughout the season. We’ve created a really solid foundation for the program and I’m excited already to see what the team looks like next year. There was only one senior on our team this year so we should be bringing back the bulk of the team next year.”